Sympathy
Two months after Lin Shi ascended from the Yuan Shu Realm to the Hong Chuan Realm, she joined the Meng Tian Immortal Sect in the Hong Chuan Realm and became an elder. Her cave dwelling was located on the main peak of a cloud-shrouded floating island. On the main peak of the floating island next to her lived Lian Zheng and his disciples and grand-disciples.
After Lin Shi and Lian Zheng had been trapped in the same dream scene for a whole year, Lian Zheng moved into Lin Shi's cave and lived with her.
The people of the Dream Heaven Immortal Sect were initially unaware of this, but the frequent strange phenomena in the sky soon informed them that two very old elders in their sect had suddenly become a couple. Although the cultivators of the Dream Heaven Immortal Sect dared not discuss openly that the two elders, who were hundreds of years old, had maintained their primordial yang and primordial yin bodies, their sudden pairing was still quite shocking and the subject of much private discussion.
Since the two elders had not yet officially become Daoist partners, the cultivators of the Dream Heaven Immortal Sect could only pretend not to know that the two were living together. However, Lian Zheng's disciples, after moving from Lian Zheng's residence to Lin Shi's cave, would rush to Lin Shi's floating island whenever anything happened.
After Lian Zheng moved into Lin Shi's cave to live with him, the two first tried to communicate at the physical level. After spending a whole month together, they began to exchange and merge spiritual energy at the primordial spirit level.
Lin Shi's aerial island was vast, surrounded by ethereal clouds and mist. The island's perimeter was covered with tall trees of various kinds, beneath which grew a variety of plants, each blooming with vibrant flowers. Further inland, there was a low hill, and atop that hill stood a magnificent pavilion.
Lin Shi's residence was a magnificent palace. The space inside was vast, more than enough to accommodate hundreds of disciples teaching magic. But it was solely Lin Shi's dwelling. The ridiculously large jade bed inside was made of special cultivation materials; even if ten people lay on it simultaneously, there would still be room. Even after Lian Zheng moved in, Lin Shi's palace still felt spacious and empty.
On this day, Lian Zheng sat cross-legged opposite Lin Shi and suggested to Lin Shi, who was also sitting cross-legged, "Lin Shi, shall we try to empathize starting today?"
Lin Shi looked at Lian Zheng directly opposite him and said seriously, "We don't need to choose complete empathy and share each other's experiences and memories from birth to the present. Having both sides' memories completely unreserved is like running naked in public—it's terrifying. Instead, how about we choose partial empathy, selecting a cultivation stage from the Nascent Soul stage to the Void Refinement stage, and then empathizing with that stage?"
Lian Zheng stared intently at Lin Shi for a long time. He wanted to fully empathize, but in the end, he compromised and said, "Let's start empathizing from the Nascent Soul stage!"
Lin Shi nodded and said, "Okay!"
The two stood face to face, suspended a short distance above the ground. Lin Shi was positioned further off the ground so that she and Lian Zheng could touch forehead to forehead, empathizing and exchanging memories and experiences from their Nascent Soul stage onwards. The spiritual energy within them circulated through their touching foreheads, forming a large spiritual energy shield that enveloped them both.
After achieving empathy, Lin Shi and Lian Zheng could view each other's memories and experiences from the Nascent Soul stage. Their memories flashed through their minds like a fleeting glimpse. Half a month later, they emerged from the empathy state and reviewed each other's experiences from the Nascent Soul stage to the present.
Lin Shi, as a cultivator who ascended from a minor world to the Hongchuan Great World, experienced a series of ups and downs. From her first ascension from the Mengtian Minor World to the Yuanshu Realm, to her fall into the Futian Minor World and the Lietian Minor World, then her ascension back to the Yuanshu Realm, and finally to the Hongchuan Realm, her overall journey was far from smooth. Although she tried her best to avoid getting involved in major cultivator conflicts, she still couldn't avoid facing significant dangers several times.
In contrast, Lian Zheng's parents were both high-level cultivators, and he was born in the Hongchuan Great World, enjoying top-tier cultivation resources from the start. Even just looking at his experience from the Nascent Soul stage, one could guess that his cultivation path had always been smooth sailing. When he went out to train, he only occasionally encountered minor setbacks. If his cultivation faltered, he had countless sect pills to assist him. If he worried about heavenly tribulations, he also had countless magical artifacts, treasures, and formations to help him successfully overcome them.
Lian Zheng's memories are truly an enviable and jealously fortunate experience! Compared to the former city lords of the Futian Small World, his luck is far superior!
After the empathy ended, Lin Shi opened her eyes and looked into Lian Zheng's eyes, half-criticizing and half-accusing: "Lian Zheng, your bone age is actually eight hundred years old, while I'm only five hundred. You're an old cow eating young grass!" As she spoke, she took a few steps back.
Upon hearing this, Lian Zheng laughed. His hearty laughter echoed for a long time within the spiritual energy barrier containing only the two of them. As he laughed, his spiritual energy rapidly transformed into silk, binding his own waist and Lin Shi's waist together, while simultaneously contracting to pull Lin Shi closer to him.
After Lian Zheng finished laughing, he cupped Lin Shi's face, which was so close to his eyes, and earnestly promised, "I am much older than you, so I will try my best to give in to you in the future."
Lin Shi glanced at Lian Zheng and said arrogantly, "I don't need you to give way to me. My cultivation is equal to yours, so I don't need you to give way to me." After she finished speaking, she couldn't help but avoid looking directly at Lian Zheng, who was so close to her.
Lian Zheng gently turned Lin Shi's face back with his palm until she was looking at him again. After doing so, he chuckled softly, and then, after his laughter subsided, he said seriously, "Alright. Then we'll help each other from now on and ascend together."
Lin Shi nodded.
Afterwards, Lin Shi and Lian Zheng looked at each other's surplus cultivation resources and exchanged some on the spot. Once all this was done, Lin Shi and Lian Zheng sat facing each other in a cross-legged meditation posture.
Lin Shi and Lian Zheng were both enveloped in a smaller spiritual energy shield. Their spiritual energy was each channeled into the shield, then rapidly circulated, indistinguishable from one another, before transforming into specks of spiritual light that entered their respective meridians. Through this shared shield, they allowed their spiritual energy to flow freely from each other's meridians, repeatedly.
Above the cave dwelling where Lin Shi and Lian Zheng lived, dark clouds had been gathering day and night for years, accompanied by continuous flashes of lightning and thunder, but the thunder was more bark than bite, with no actual lightning strikes yet. The cultivators of the Dream Heaven Immortal Sect, seeing this unusual phenomenon in the sky above Lin Shi's cave, knew that she and Elder Lian Zheng had been diligently cultivating in seclusion, without a single day of slackening. Their diligence even inspired some of the lower-level disciples in the Dream Heaven Immortal Sect to cultivate frantically, daring not to slack off and only fearing that their cultivation would fall behind the other cultivators.
Lin Shi and Lian Zheng closed their eyes and concentrated, meditating and cultivating. Their primordial spirits and spiritual energy were constantly merging and exchanging, so engrossed in it that they completely forgot the passage of time, and then a whole hundred years passed in the blink of an eye. It wasn't until their cultivation level surged to a terrifying level that they had to undergo the baptism of heavenly tribulation before they could continue their dual cultivation of primordial spirits.
On this day, Lin Shi and Lian Zheng sensed something and simultaneously awoke from their meditative state. After opening their eyes, they exchanged a glance and then clearly heard terrifying thunder and lightning echoing in the sky outside their cave. In an instant, their expressions changed slightly. A hint of solemnity appeared in their similarly beautiful peach blossom eyes.
Outside Lin Shi's aerial island, cultivators from the Dream Heaven Immortal Sect and other sects and immortal cultivation families in the Hongchuan Realm were completely dumbfounded by the strange phenomenon in the sky.
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